Personality Plague
by HK-47 Scarlet
Summary: An odd plague spreads across Domino that causes people to act like total opposites of their true selves; it even gets Mokuba! How does Kaiba deal with his brother acting out of character? Who else will be infected? And is there a cure?


**Personality Plague **

It wasn't that the day was particularly long, or that he was in a sour mood. His morning had actually started out quite well, which he was sure would set the tone for a decent afternoon. A promise that was kept for a while.

Until it hit around four in the afternoon.

Seto Kaiba was not one to take nonsense at all well, and this day was further proof. He wasn't sure if it was the heat, or the fact that summer had just settled and everyone was anxious to start their vacation, but his employees had been acting rather foolish. Actually, they were acting like idiots.

He had fired three already, and had replaced two. He had just finished interviewing the third replacement, who had made the cut. The man had a goofy looking face, but he seemed organized and well put together enough. As quickly as he fired those irresponsible fools, he replaced them, allowing for a perfectly balanced day.

By the time Kaiba got home, he found he wasn't in a horrible mood, nor did he suffer from any banging headaches like he thought he would.

He had never fired three people in one day before. While he was known to be tough on his workers, they always knew to keep in line and often did their job. Whether it was out of loyalty or fear, he wasn't sure, but either way they got the job done and that's all he cared about. Lately, however, they had been acting clumsy, irresponsible, and sometimes just blatantly stupid.

It was just so out of character for them.

And now, due to the many mistakes made in one day by those idiot employees, Kaiba was forced to work even harder at home than usual.

Sitting at his desk, hammering away at the white keys of his laptop, his mind was going into overdrive mode. All that held his thoughts was work, and he intended to keep it that way until he was done.

"Seto?"

Kaiba didn't stop typing, nor did his pace slow down when he heard his younger brother call his name. "What is it, Mokuba?"

"Here's the report you were looking for."

Kaiba had noticed something off about his younger brother's tone of voice; he sounded weak, almost as if he were sick. Turning around in his seat, he couldn't help but give Mokuba an odd look when he saw his younger sibling set the report on the floor in front of him.

"Mokuba, what are you doing?"

Mokuba rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Giving you the report?" He shuffled his feet, casually looking out the doorway behind him as if he were purposefully avoiding Kaiba's gaze.

Kaiba's blue eyes narrowed for a moment as he struggled to decipher Mokuba's odd behavior. It wasn't like him to be acting so weird. "Just hand it to me," he said, holding out his arm.

Mokuba's smoky gray eyes finally met Kaiba's gaze before moving down to the report that lay on the floor in front of his own feet. Lightly, he kicked the light blue binder towards Kaiba, though it didn't quite make it.

At that point, Kaiba wanted to know what was wrong with Mokuba that had him acting so strange. It seemed like he didn't want to go anywhere near him for whatever reason. "Mokuba, what's the matter with you?"

"Nothing," he replied nonchalantly, though his voice cracked a bit and he wound up coughing his lungs out.

That's when Kaiba realized what was going on -- at least he hoped so, he'd hate to think Mokuba was just acting like a weirdo. "You're sick, aren't you?"

"No way, I don't get sick." Mokuba crossed his arms and attempted a rough looking pose, but his features gave him away. Kaiba could hear Mokuba pushing the impending coughs back down his throat, which didn't fail to give him away even more.

Kaiba ran a hand through his brown locks as a sigh blew passed his lips. "Come here."

"I'm fine, Seto." Mokuba's voice was stern, but Kaiba wasn't deterred. After all, he _had_ learn that tone from the CEO himself. He'd be damned if he were going to fall for it.

"Mokuba, come _here_," Kaiba repeated, trying to keep his patience.

Mokuba hesitated for a moment before making his way over to his older brother, stopping right in front of him. "What?" he asked, trying to sound genuinely confused.

Kaiba couldn't help but think the boy was too damn clever for his own good.

He placed his hand on Mokuba's forehead, who only continued to act as if he felt like a million bucks. If it weren't for his weakened face, Kaiba would have probably believed him. "You're burning up. Go to bed."

"I'm fine," Mokuba protested as he lightly swatted away Kaiba's hand.

"Then why were you avoiding me like the plague?" Kaiba asked with crossed arms.

Mokuba looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a moment before a sheepish look crossed his features. "Because, you smell?"

If there was a list of things Kaiba never expected to hear come out of his little brother's mouth, that definitely wasn't one of them. Mainly because it was so crazy he wouldn't have even thought to put it on there in the first place. Something was off about Mokuba, and it was bothering Kaiba.

He'd just have to find out what it was; but at the moment, he had work to get done.

* * *

Finding out what was wrong with Mokuba proved to be extremely difficult, seeing as how the strangeness in his behavior only increased two-fold. He started off quiet and slept for a couple of hours. By the time it was ten o'clock Mokuba had transformed into a different person, entirely.

He was yelling for Kaiba, throwing tantrums, _crying_ because he had a 'boo boo.'

If Kaiba had been a different person, he would have sworn that something had been taking over his brother's body. However, being the reasonable teenager Kaiba was, he chalked it up to the fever Mokuba was sporting.

"Seto!"

Kaiba sighed from his spot behind his desk as he pushed his chair back and proceeded to go to his brother's room. When he got there, he found Mokuba sitting under the covers of his bed with his arms crossed. He looked like he was actually pouting.

"What is it, Mokuba?"

"I want ice cream," he replied immaturely, earning an odd stare from Kaiba.

_Maybe I should call his doctor_, he thought contemplatively to himself. Mokuba _did_ have a fever, but he wasn't coughing anymore, or sneezing, or throwing up like he had been a few hours ago. He was just acting really strange.

_Maybe the high fever is making him delirious. _That thought sparked concern in Kaiba and immediately drove him to reach for his cell and dial the number of Mokuba's doctor. If anyone would know what's wrong with his brother, one of the best doctors in town would.

* * *

As it turns out, not even one of the best doctors in town knew what was wrong with Mokuba. It was disheartening, to say the least, and completely aggravating. Just what was he _paying _this man for? Did he have any idea what was wrong with Mokuba?

"I have no idea what's wrong with Mokuba," Doctor Akihiko said with bewilderment.

"What?" Kaiba crossed his arms and glared at the old man, trying his best to hold on to the little patience he had left.

The doctor removed his stethoscope from Mokuba's chest, shoving it back into his breast pocket. "He doesn't have a fever, and his heart rate is normal; everything is normal," he replied in obvious surprise.

"I told you I was fine," Mokuba muttered as he crossed his arms. Though Kaiba's eyes had been on the doctor, he could still see Mokuba sticking his tongue out at him with his peripheral vision.

"Doctor Akihiko, you _do _see the way he's acting, don't you?" Kaiba asked incredulously. Mokuba _never _acted like a five year old, and he _never _cried for bumping his head on a door. Mokuba may have been young, but he was _not _a child!

The older man merely shrugged. "It looks to me like a twenty-four hour bug; he's probably just recovering from the fever. He'll be fine in a few hours."

"You better be right," Kaiba replied in irritation. "I don't pay you to be wrong."

A few hours after Doctor Akihiko had left, Kaiba went back to working at his usual pace. Though he admittedly had trouble concentrating fully just knowing that there was something wrong with his brother. Even worse, he didn't know what is was.

"Seto!" called Mokuba from the doorway.

Kaiba shut his eyes for a moment, surprised that he even felt _slightly _annoyed by his younger brother. Mokuba _never _annoyed him, because he just _wasn't_ annoying. Sure, they had their disagreements, but this was different. It was not the type of person Mokuba was -- he wasn't annoying.

Maybe it was just Kaiba?

"What is it Mokuba?" Kaiba asked as he reopened his eyes and continued typing furiously.

"I'm hungry," the boy declared.

That was a perfectly reasonable, normal thing for someone to say. But it wasn't perfectly reasonable or normal for someone as resourceful as Mokuba to come to Kaiba like he _needed _him to get his own food. Kaiba had considered that _maybe _he was reading too much into it, but only for a second.

"Okay?" Kaiba replied, choosing not to look back at his younger brother.

"So?" Mokuba asked expectantly, now standing beside his brother's desk. His eyes were trained on Kaiba, who only glared at his laptop screen. He just wanted this 'recovering' process to end already so that Mokuba could start acting like his old self already.

"So, _what?" _He rarely lost his patience with Mokuba but he found his peace of mind gradually slipping away.

"Make me something!"

Kaiba didn't know Mokuba's voice could be so loud. Then again, Mokuba had never stood right beside his desk and screamed a demand at him before.

_No one_ had.

Had this been anyone else he were dealing with, Kaiba would have either fired them or 'dealt' with them in his usual way. Unfortunately, this wasn't anyone else, it was Mokuba. He had to keep reminding himself of that, and it was starting to be a pain.

"Mokuba, I'm busy," he muttered, trying to turn his focus back on his work.

"But I'm hungry!" the smaller boy protested childishly.

"You're perfectly capable of-"

"I'm _hungry!_" Mokuba shouted as he forcefully kicked the side of Kaiba's desk, effectively startling the older teen. "Get me some food you big, sucky, dumb..._stupid!_"

As Kaiba stared down at Mokuba, his eyes the size of gulf balls and his jaw hitting the ground, he couldn't stop that one thought he dismissed earlier from nagging at the back of his mind.

This was _not _his little brother.

The _real _Mokuba wouldn't have yelled like that. The real Mokuba would not have insulted Kaiba. And the real Mokuba _definitely_ would have been clever enough to come up with a better insult than this impostor! This was _not _Kaiba's little brother.

Kaiba had to do something. Even though he had no clue what that something was, he had to do it. Fast!


End file.
